Insecure Writer’s Support Group November 2020

November’s Question: Albert Camus once said: “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said: “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

Why do I write character-driven science fiction? I’ve had these characters in my head since I was in school in the late 1970s and early 80s. Back then, Dungeons and Dragons had just been invented, and we were creating our own races because we weren’t satisfied with what was in the Player’s Handbook. I wanted something that could explain many of the myths that seem to cross cultural lines on Earth, like vampires, fairies, elves … you know, those humanoid creatures that nearly everybody on the planet has a story about.

I’ve fine-tuned my characters since then, of course. I like researching the biology and physiology behind some of the abilities I’ve given them. As to why sci-fi rather than fantasy, the velyr turned out to be from another planet, one with a higher level of technology than our own planet has. Thus, many of the things they can do may have appeared magical to our ancestors, who couldn’t explain them scientifically. 

This doesn’t mean I won’t write fantasy. I’m actually working on a short story now for an anthology entitled “The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity.” It’s a fun little journey into the life of some of the old gods, trying to imagine how they’re surviving in today’s world.

And of course, there’s the historical fiction, although that’s my alter ego’s bailiwick. I write that because I love history and research. I like throwing in the odd historical fact with my fiction. And I like finding out how we did things “back then.”

I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo this year, so wish me luck. 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve done it before so I’m not really very insecure about it. I just have to knuckle down and get the work done every day. If you write every single day you just need to write 1667 words a day, but if you slack off, you have to “catch up” and that’s a problem. I’m not trying to get an entire novel down this time because 50,000 is only about half of what I usually write for sci-fi novels. However, I can get a good start on a first draft and that’ll be good.

Of course, one of the tricks to NaNoWriMo is to count every word you write – including this blog post <very evil grin>. After all, I’m working, even if it’s not on a novel…

I’m sending off short stories too, even if I’m still not feeling so secure about the novel. I really need to take a few hours and read over the thing again, editing for slow spots and too many “I” sentences (it’s first person POV). I really think it’s about as good as I’m going to get it. If I could just get an agent interested…

But that’s probably going to be a continuing source of insecurity: writing novels and getting them published. Even established authors often have novels rejected by their publishers. It’s not a business for the thin-skinned. You’ve got to develop some confidence, or you never ever get anything published. Sooner or later, it’s got to be ready.